Nando161<p>"Frederick Douglass, who was born into Southern <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/slavery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>slavery</span></a>, described the South as “a little nation by itself, having its own language, its own rules, regulations, and customs.”</p><p>Fewer than 2000 families — six-tenths of one percent of the Southern <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/population" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>population</span></a> — owned more than 50 enslaved people and ruled the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>oligarchy</span></a> that we call the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Confederacy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Confederacy</span></a> with an iron fist. The 75 percent of white <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/people" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>people</span></a> in the South during that era who did not own any enslaved persons generally lived in deep <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/poverty" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>poverty</span></a>.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Women" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Women</span></a> had no rights, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/queer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>queer</span></a> people were routinely <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/tortured" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>tortured</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/murdered" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>murdered</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/education" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>education</span></a> for both enslaved <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Africans" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Africans</span></a> and poor whites was generally outlawed, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/religious" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>religious</span></a> attendance was often mandated, and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/hunger" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>hunger</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/disease" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>disease</span></a> stalked all but those in the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/families" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>families</span></a> of the two thousand morbidly <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/rich" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>rich</span></a> planter <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/dynasties" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>dynasties</span></a>.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Modern" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Modern</span></a>-day Red states are doing their best to recreate that old Confederacy, right down to state Senator Kathy <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Chism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Chism</span></a>’s new effort to return the Confederate battle flag to <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Mississippi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Mississippi</span></a>'s state flag. Ron <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/DeSantis" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DeSantis</span></a> and Mike <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Pence" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Pence</span></a> have both emphasized their presidential pledges to restore the names of murderous Civil <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/War" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>War</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/traitors" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>traitors</span></a> to <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/American" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>American</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/military" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>military</span></a> bases, celebrating their armed defense of the “values” of the Old South.</p><p>Today’s version of yesteryear’s <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/plantation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>plantation</span></a> owners are called <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CEOs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CEOs</span></a>, hedge and vulture fund managers, and the morbidly rich.</p><p>They use the power of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/political" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>political</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/bribery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>bribery</span></a> given them by five corrupt <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Republicans" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Republicans</span></a> on the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SupremeCourt" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SupremeCourt</span></a> — with Clarence <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Thomas" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Thomas</span></a>’ tie-breaking <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Citizens" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Citizens</span></a> United vote on behalf of his sugar daddy Harlan <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Crow" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Crow</span></a> — to lord over their Red states, regardless of the will of those states’ citizens."</p><p><a href="https://www.alternet.org/welfare-queens/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="">alternet.org/welfare-queens/</span><span class="invisible"></span></a></p>